Thinkers, founders and transmission patriarchs, alchemical and ritual practitioners, imperial patrons and modern scholars are distinguished by role.
Akizuki Kan'ei was a Japanese scholar of Daoism, professor at Hirosaki University, known for his research on Jingming Daoism. His The Formation of Modern Chinese Daoism: …
Anna Seidel, a German sinologist and student of Max Kaltenmark, wrote her doctoral dissertation, La divinisation de Lao tseu dans le taoïsme des Han (1969), on the deific…
Anqi Sheng, a fangshi (master of methods) of the Qin dynasty, was a native of Fuxiang in Langya, traditionally said to have been a disciple of the Elder of the Riverbank.…
Bai Yuchan, originally surnamed Ge, given name Changgeng, whose ancestral home was Minqing, Fujian, was born in Qiongzhou. Renowned as a child prodigy, he later abandoned…
Bai Yunji, courtesy name Mingzhi, sobriquet Zaixuzi, was a native of Nanjing and a late-Ming Daoist priest whose dates of birth and death are unknown. In the sixth year o…
Bao Gu, given name Qianguang, was the daughter of Bao Jing, Governor of Nanhai under the Eastern Jin, and the wife of Ge Hong; she is one of the earliest recorded female …
Bao Jing, style name Taixuan, was a fangshi of the Eastern Jin who rose to the office of Governor of Nanhai. The 'Biographies of the Arts' in the Book of Jin states that …
Bo He, courtesy name Zhongli, was a fangshi active between the end of the Han and the Wei–Jin period. The Biographies of Divine Immortals records that he studied under Do…
Chen Guofu, a native of Changshu in Jiangsu, was a chemist (holding a doctorate from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany) and a scholar of Daoist texts, and …
Chen Jinggu, a native of Fuzhou, is one of the most important female deities of the Fujian–Taiwan region, honored with the titles Linshui furen (Lady of Linshui) and Shun…
Chen Jingyuan, style name Taichu, sobriquet Bixuzi, was a renowned Daoist scholar of the Northern Song. In his youth he became a Daoist at the Tianqing Guan in Gao'an cou…
Chen Liansheng, a native of Shanghai and a Zhengyi Daoist priest born into a Daoist family, who studied liturgical chanting and ritual from childhood and was already a we…
Chen Minggui, style name Youshan, was a native of Dongguan, Guangdong, a Qing-dynasty provincial graduate (juren), man of letters, and Daoist priest, who in his later yea…
Chen Nan, styled Nanmu, with the sobriquet Cuixu, popularly known as "Chen Niwan" (Chen of the Mud Pellets), was the fourth patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal …
Chen Tuan, style name Tunan, self-styled Fuyaozi, was a renowned Daoist priest and recluse of the Five Dynasties and early Song. In his youth he failed the jinshi examina…
Chen Yingning, a native of Huaining, Anhui, was the most important Daoist reformer and advocate of Xianxue (Immortality Studies) in modern times. As a youth he studied Co…
Chen Yuan, a native of Xinhui in Guangdong, was a renowned modern historian and one of the founders of the study of religious history, who served successively as presiden…
Chen Zhixu, style name Guanwu, sobriquet Shangyangzi, was a native of Luling, Jiangxi, and one of the great synthesizers of internal alchemy in the Yuan dynasty. At the a…
Cheng Chih-ming is a Taiwanese scholar of religion, professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University, and former director of the Center for …
Cheng Xuanying, style name Zishi, was an early Tang Daoist priest and a leading representative of Chongxuan (Twofold Mystery) learning. His dates of birth and death are n…
Choi Chi-cheung is a Hong Kong historian, Professor (Emeritus) in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and one of the leading figures in the …
Cui Hao, courtesy name Boyuan, of the Cui clan of Qinghe, was the leading strategist and counselor at the court of Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, rising to the office of …
Cui Xifan was an internal-alchemy master of the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, styled the Perfected Zhiyi; little is known of his life, though one account places hi…
David A. Palmer, a Canadian anthropologist, is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, working on contemporary Chinese Daoism, qigong, …
Deng Yougong was a Southern Song Daoist priest from Jiangxi, credited as the compiler of the five-fascicle Correct Rites of the Celestial Heart of Shangqing (Shangqing ti…
Ding Peiren, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, works mainly on Daoist textual studies and the hist…
Dong Dening was a scholar of internal alchemy during the Qianlong era of the Qing; details of his life are unknown. His works, the Zhouyi cantong qi zhengyi (Correct Mean…
Du Guangting, courtesy name Binsheng, styled Dongyingzi, was a celebrated Daoist priest and scholar of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, a native of Jinyun. He sat for th…
Emperor Gaozong of Tang, personal name Li Zhi, was the ninth son of Emperor Taizong of Tang and reigned 649–683. Since the Tang imperial house claimed descent from Laozi,…
Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, established the state policy of "Daoism first, Buddhism after" that held throughout the Tang, and marks the starting point of Daoism's att…
Emperor Hongwu (Zhu Yuanzhang), founder of the Ming dynasty, established the basic institutions for the administration of Daoism, his guiding principle being "to make use…
The sacrifices to Laozi conducted during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han (Liu Zhi, r. 146–168) are a key marker of Laozi's transformation from a philosopher into a vener…
Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhao Ji, reigned from 1100 to 1126, and was one of the most devoutly Daoist emperors in Chinese history. After his accession he trusted and emplo…
Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei, Tuoba Tao (r. 423–452), was the first emperor in Chinese history to make Daoism the state religion. In the first year of the Shiguang era (…
Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, is the most famous immortality-seeking ruler in Chinese history; the "Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices" of the Shiji (Records of the G…
Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, had a complex relationship with Daoism, moving from belief to renunciation, yet never entirely severing his ties. In his early years he fav…
Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yong, is known in the history of Daoism for the episode of destroying Buddhism and Daoism in the Jiande era while establishing the Tong…
Emperor Wuzong of Tang, personal name Li Yan, reigned 840–846. From the moment of his accession he was a devoted believer in Daoism: he summoned eighty-one Daoist priests…
Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, personal name Li Longji, reigned 712–756 and was the Tang emperor most devoted to Daoism; under his rule Daoism reached its high point of the dy…
Emperor Zhenzong of Song, personal name Zhao Heng, reigned 997–1022. After the Treaty of Chanyuan (1004), in order to "overawe the realm and impress foreign states," unde…
Fabrizio Pregadio, an Italian scholar of Daoism, has worked for many years on Chinese alchemy and internal alchemy, and has taught at the University of Venice, Stanford U…
Fan Changsheng, also named Yanjiu or Jiuzhong, style name Yuan, was the leader of the Way of the Celestial Masters in the Cheng-Han state during the Western Jin, a native…
Franciscus Verellen, a German-born French sinologist, is a researcher at the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), where he served as director from 2004 to 2014, and i…
Fu Jinquan, sobriquet Jiyizi, was a native of Jinxi, Jiangxi, and an internal-alchemy master of the Jiaqing and Daoguang eras of the Qing; his dates of birth and death ar…
Fu Qinjia was a scholar of the Republican era, of whom very little biographical information survives. His work History of Chinese Daoism (Zhongguo daojiao shi, The Commer…
Fu Yuantian, a native of Jianyang, Sichuan, was a Daoist of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage and abbot of the Changdao Temple (Tianshi Cave) on Mount Qingcheng. He entered th…
Fukui Kōjun, a Japanese scholar of Daoism, was a professor at Waseda University and the founding president (1950) of the Japanese Society for Daoist Studies, and was a le…
Gai Jianmin, director, professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, is a disciple of Qing Xitai. His main resea…
Gan Zhongke, a master of esoteric arts from Qi in the time of Emperor Cheng of Han, is recorded in the "Biography of Li Xun" in the Book of Han as having composed the twe…
Gao Dongli, personal name Qingyu, was the tenth-generation Vinaya Master (lüshi) of the Longmen Lineage in the Qing, and an important figure of the Jingai Mountain branch…
Ge Chaofu, a member of the Ge clan of Jurong, Danyang, in the late Eastern Jin, was a great-nephew of Ge Hong and a descendant of Ge Xuan's line. His activities are recor…
Ge Hong, style name Zhichuan, self-styled Baopuzi (Master Who Embraces Simplicity), was a native of Jurong in Danyang under the Eastern Jin, and a grand-nephew of Ge Xuan…
Ge Xuan, courtesy name Xiaoxian, was a native of Jurong in Danyang under the Wu of the Three Kingdoms, a great-uncle of Ge Hong, and known to the world as "Immortal Elder…
Gong Chong, a native of Langye in the time of Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han, was a disciple of the master of esoteric arts Yu Ji. The "Biography of Xiang Kai" in the Bo…
Gu Huan, styled Jingyi (also styled Xuanping), was a Daoist scholar and recluse of the Southern Dynasties. Poor but devoted to study, he lived in reclusion on Mount Tiant…
Guan Yin, that is, Yin Xi, keeper of the pass, was the warden of the Hangu Pass of Zhou in the late Spring and Autumn period. The Records of the Grand Historian records t…
Guo Shouzhen, styled Jingyangzi, was a native of Danyang, Jiangsu, and the founder of Daoism in Liaodong in the early Qing. Fleeing unrest at the end of the Ming, he trav…
Guo Wu, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, formerly taught at Yunnan University. His fields of rese…
Guo Xiang, styled Zixuan, a native of Henan in the Western Jin, rose to the offices of Attendant Gentleman of the Yellow Gate and Registrar to the Grand Tutor, was the re…
Hao Datong, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen; originally skilled in divination and the study of the Yijing, he took Wang Chongyan…
He Longxiang, a native of Jingyan, Sichuan, was one of the central figures in the Daoist textual-publishing enterprise of late-Qing Chengdu. Around the thirty-second year…
He Zhengong, a Daoist priest at the Yulong Wanshou Palace on Mount Xi in the early Southern Song and a forerunner of Jingming Daoism, personal name and dates of birth and…
He Zhizhang, courtesy name Jizhen, in his later years styled himself "Mad Guest of Siming," was a Tang-dynasty poet who placed first in the palace examination in the firs…
Heguanzi, a recluse of the state of Chu in the late Warring States period, took his name from the pheasant-feather cap he wore; his personal name is unknown. The Bibliogr…
Henri Maspero, a French sinologist and professor at the Collège de France, was a founder of Daoist studies in Europe. The son of the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero, he worke…
Heshang Gong ("Master on the River") is traditionally held to have been a recluse in the time of Emperor Wen of Han, who built a thatched hut on a riverbank and taught Em…
Hou Baoyuan, a native of Nanhai, Guangdong, was a Daoist priest of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen and the founder of Ching Chung Koon in Hong Kong. He entered the priest…
Hu Fuchen is a research fellow and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a student of Wang Ming, and his main research a…
Huang Shunshen, personal name Yingyan, a native of Jianning, Fujian, was the actual synthesizer of the Qingwei School and is honored as its tenth-generation patriarch. As…
Huang Yuanji, given name Shang, a native of Fengcheng in Jiangxi, was an internal-alchemy master of the Daoguang and Xianfeng reigns of the Qing; his dates of birth and d…
Huangdi (the Yellow Emperor) is a tribal leader and cultural progenitor of Chinese high antiquity in legend, not a verifiable historical individual: accounts of his name …
Isabelle Robinet, a French sinologist and professor at the University of Provence, was a central member of the French school of Daoist studies. A student of Max Kaltenmar…
James Legge was a Scottish missionary and sinologist, a member of the London Missionary Society, who in his early career headed the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca and m…
Ji Zhizhen, a native of Lintong in Shaanxi, was a Yuan-dynasty Quanzhen priest who came from a Confucian family and was broadly learned in the classics and histories; he …
Jia Shanxiang, style name Hongju, sobriquet Pengqiuzi, was a Daoist priest of the Northern Song, a native of Pengzhou. Under Emperors Shenzong and Zhezong he successively…
Zhu Houcong, the eleventh emperor of the Ming, reigned under the era name Jiajing for forty-five years and was the Ming ruler most devoted to Daoism. After his accession …
Jiang Shuyu, courtesy name Yuanfu, a native of Yongjia, Zhejiang, was a noted Southern Song Lingbao ritualist. He once held a minor local office, then retired into Daoist…
Jiao Kuang, style name Daoguang, was a Daoist priest of the Northern Zhou who lived in reclusion at the Yuntai Abbey on Mount Hua, later building a hermitage on its weste…
Jin Yunzhong, a Southern Song Lingbao School Daoist priest, dates of birth and death unknown, active roughly in the early thirteenth century (his own preface to his book …
John Lagerwey, an American-born French sinologist, was a professor at the EPHE and later a professor at the Research Centre for Chinese Studies at the Chinese University …
Kenneth Dean, an American-born scholar, formerly a professor at McGill University and now professor of Chinese studies at the National University of Singapore, has conduc…
Kobayashi Masayoshi is a Japanese scholar of Daoism, professor emeritus at Waseda University. His representative work Studies on the History of Six Dynasties Daoism (1990…
Kou Qianzhi, styled Fuzhen, was a Daoist priest of the Northern Wei and the reformer of the Northern Celestial Masters. According to the "Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism"…
Kristofer Schipper, a Dutch sinologist, was the most important scholar of international Daoist studies in the second half of the twentieth century. A student of Max Kalte…
Kublai Khan, Emperor Shizu of Yuan, adopted a dual-track policy toward Daoism of suppressing Quanzhen while supporting Zhengyi, profoundly reshaping the Daoist landscape …
Kubo Noritada was a Japanese scholar of Daoism, professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo, and president of the Japanese Socie…
Lai Chi-tim is a Hong Kong scholar of Daoism, professor in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and founding director …
Laozi, surnamed Li, given name Er, styled Dan, was a thinker of the late Spring and Autumn period, traditionally said to have served as archivist of the Zhou royal librar…
Lee Fong-mao is a Taiwanese scholar of Daoism, chair professor at the Graduate Institute of Religious Studies, National Chengchi University, and research fellow (emeritus…
Lei Shizhong, courtesy name Kequan, sobriquet Mo'an, a native of Wuchang, Hubei, was a ritual master of the late Southern Song and early Yuan. In his youth he studied Con…
Lei Siqi, style name Qixian, was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi, and a scholar at the Song–Yuan transition. After the fall of the Song he abandoned Confucian scholarship t…
Leung Yan-am (Liang Renan), a native of Nanhai, Guangdong, was the founder of the Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong. During the Guangxu reign of the Qing he t…
Li A, a fangshi of Shu in the late Han, appears in Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan. Tradition holds that he habitually begged for food in the markets of Chengdu, giving away all…
Li Babai is an immortal of Sichuanese legend, so named because people called him eight hundred years old; one account gives his name as Li Tuo. The Biographies of Divine …
Li Bai, courtesy name Taibai, styled himself the "Green Lotus Lay Practitioner" (Qinglian Jushi), was a poet of the High Tang whose ties to Daoism ran deep. As a boy in S…
Li Daochun, style name Yuansu, sobriquet Qing'an, was a native of Xuyi, Jiangsu, and a prominent theorist of internal alchemy in the early Yuan; his dates of birth and de…
Li Guangfu, a native of Danjiangkou, Hubei, is a Daoist of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage and a leading representative of Daoism at the Wudang Mountains. He entered the pri…
Li Hanguang, originally surnamed Hong, changed his surname to Li to avoid the taboo name of the filial and pious Crown Prince Li Hong; he was the thirteenth-generation pa…
Li Kuan, a figure of the Three Kingdoms period, is recorded in both the Shenxian Zhuan and Ge Hong's Baopuzi Inner Chapters, chapter 'Daoyi.' According to Ge Hong's accou…
Li Rong, an early Tang Daoist priest with the sobriquet Renzhenzi, a native of Mianzhou, is ranked together with Cheng Xuanying as one of the two great masters of Chongxu…
Li Shaojun was a renowned fangshi under Emperor Wu of the Western Han. The 'Fengshan Shu' of the Records of the Grand Historian and the 'Treatise on the Suburban Sacrific…
Li Shuhuan, a Daoist figure and scholar active in Taiwan from the Republican era into modern times; his birth and death years are unknown. After 1949 he engaged in Daoist…
Li Xicheng was the fifth-generation head of Zhen Dadao in the early Yuan. At the end of the Jin, Zhen Dadao split, and one branch was led by Li Xicheng, who received the …
Li Xiyue, sobriquet Hanxu, a native of Leshan in Sichuan, was the founder of the “Western Lineage” of Qing internal alchemy. He studied the Confucian classics in his yout…
Li Yangzheng, a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, was a research fellow in the research office of the Chinese Taoist Association and worked for many years on Daoist research a…
Li Yuanguo is a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy and Culture, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, and a senior scholar of Daoist studies in Sichuan. His mai…
Li Yuanxing was a Daoist priest of Yizhou active under Emperor Gaozong of Tang, one of the figures, along with Li Rong and Fang Huichang, in the tradition of Daoist doctr…
Li Yuhang, a native of Jurong, Jiangsu, was a Quanzhen Daoist who came from Mount Mao. As a youth he entered the priesthood at the Yuanfu Wanning Palace on Mount Mao; dur…
Li Zhichang, the seventh head of the Quanzhen teaching, renounced the household in his early years and studied under Qiu Chuji; in 1220 he accompanied his teacher on the …
Liang Chen, a Western Jin Daoist priest, was a pivotal figure in the transmission lineage of the Louguan School. According to Louguan-authored texts such as the Original …
Liezi, personal name Yukou, was a native of the state of Zheng in the early Warring States period, who lived in seclusion in Zheng territory for forty years without seeki…
Lin Lingsu, originally named Ling'e, was a Daoist priest under Emperor Huizong of Song, a native of Wenzhou, and the actual founder of the Shenxiao School. In his youth h…
Lin Lingzhen, personal name Weifu, courtesy name Junzhao, sobriquet Lingzhen, was a native of Pingyang in Wenzhou. In his youth he studied for the civil examinations, but…
Lin Zhao'en, courtesy name Maoxun, styled Longjiang, was a native of Putian, Fujian, and the founder of the Sanyi (Three-in-One) Teaching, also known as the Xia Teaching …
Liu An, a grandson of Emperor Gaozu of Han and son of Liu Chang, King Li of Huainan, inherited the title of King of Huainan in the sixteenth year of Emperor Wen's reign (…
Liu Chuxuan, a native of Donglai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, taking Wang Chongyang as his teacher in 1169. After completing his mourning duties…
Liu Deren, a native of Le Ling in Cangzhou, was the founder of Zhen Dadao (originally named Dadao jiao, "the Teaching of the Great Way") in the Jin dynasty. According to …
Liu Haichan, given name Cao, courtesy name Zongcheng (also given as Zhaoyuan), styled Haichanzi, was an internal alchemist of the Five Dynasties and one of the Five North…
Liu Huayang, a native of Nanchang in Jiangxi, was a Qing-dynasty Buddhist monk and internal-alchemy master, a representative figure of the Wu–Liu School. Born in the firs…
Liu Hunkang, styled Zhitong, was the twenty-fifth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing school of Mount Mao in the Northern Song. He entered the Daoist order in his youth…
Liu Mingrui, sobriquet Panchanzi, was the twentieth-generation transmitter of the Nanwu Lineage of Quanzhen in the late Qing and early Republic, a native of Beijing. In h…
Liu Tailin, a priest of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen in the late Ming, is venerated by the Daoist clergy of Wudang Mountains as the founding patriarch of the Wudang Lo…
Liu Yiming, sobriquet Wuyuanzi, was a native of Quwo in Shanxi, an eleventh-generation figure of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage in the Qing and a celebrated theorist of int…
Liu Yu, courtesy name Yizhen, a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, was the actual founder of Jingming Daoism in the Yuan dynasty. In his youth he studied the Confucian classics…
Liu Yuanchang, styled Changyuan, sobriquet Ziyuan, a native of Fujian, was a disciple of Bai Yuchan. During the Jiading era he traveled and studied with Bai Yuchan, who w…
Liu Yuanran, a native of Ganxian, Jiangxi, was a disciple of Zhao Yizhen and one of the most important Daoist priests of the early Ming. In the twenty-sixth year of the H…
Liu Zhongyu is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at East China Normal University, and a leading scholar of Daoist studies in Shanghai. H…
Livia Kohn, a German-American scholar of Daoism, is professor emerita of religious studies at Boston University and spent many years as a researcher at the Institute for …
Lou Jinyuan, a native of Songjiang in Shanghai, was the Zhengyi (Orthodox Unity) priest of highest standing in the Qing dynasty. He entered Longhushan young and became ri…
Louis Komjathy, an American scholar of Daoism, formerly an associate professor at the University of San Diego, is an ordained priest of the Longmen Lineage of Quanzhen (D…
Lü Dongbin, personal name Yan, courtesy name Dongbin, styled Chunyangzi, is the patriarch venerated by the Zhong–Lü school of Daoist internal alchemy, the most influentia…
Lu Shizhong, courtesy name Dangke, an important transmitter of the Tianxin Zhengfa system in the late Northern and early Southern Song, dates of birth and death unknown, …
Lu Xiujing, styled Yuande, was a celebrated Daoist priest of the Liu Song in the Southern Dynasties, a native of Dongqian, Wuxing, and a descendant of Lu Kai, chancellor …
Lu Xixing, courtesy name Changgeng, sobriquet Qianxuzi, was a native of Xinghua, Jiangsu, and the founder of the Ming-dynasty Eastern Lineage of internal alchemy. In his …
Lu Xun, courtesy name Yuxian, childhood name Yuanlong, was a leader of the Celestial Masters uprising at the end of the Eastern Jin, the brother-in-law of Sun En, and a d…
Luo Gongyuan, a renowned Daoist priest of the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, counted together with Ye Fashan and Zhang Guo as one of the three extraordinary men…
Lüqiu Fangyuan, courtesy name Dafang, was a Daoist priest of the late Tang and Five Dynasties. As a young man he mastered the classics and histories, received instruction…
Ma Shu, style name Yaoli, was a scholar and recluse active at the Liang–Chen juncture, broadly learned and skilled in writing, especially versed in Laozi and Zhuangzi. Xi…
Ma Yu, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, born into great wealth, took Wang Chongyang as his teacher in 1167 together with his wife Sun Bu'er, and stands foremost among the S…
Mao Ying, styled Shushen, was the eldest of the Three Mao Lords of Daoism, venerated by the Shangqing school as the Perfected Lord Who Controls Destiny (Siming Zhenjun) a…
Maruyama Hiroshi is a Japanese scholar of Daoism, professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba, who studies Daoist ritual and Zhengyi Daoism in Taiwan. From the 1980s …
Max Kaltenmark, an Austrian-born French sinologist and student of Henri Maspero, held the chair in 'Chinese Religions' in the Fifth Section of the École pratique des haut…
Meng Anpai was a Daoist priest active under Emperor Gaozong of Tang and during the Zhou dynasty of Empress Wu Zetian, resident at Qingxi Temple; his dates of birth and de…
Meng Wentong, a native of Yanting in Sichuan, was a renowned modern historian and classicist, and a professor at Sichuan University. In his early years he studied under L…
Meng Zhizhou was a Daoist priest of the Liang in the Southern Dynasties, styled Master Xuanjing; his dates of birth and death are unknown. He wrote the Catalogue of the S…
Michael Saso, an American scholar and former Jesuit, is professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of Hawai'i. In the 1960s he studied ritual protocol unde…
Michel Strickmann, an American sinologist, studied early in his career in Paris under Max Kaltenmark and Kristofer Schipper, and later became a professor at the Universit…
Min Yide, style name Xiaogen, was a native of Huzhou in Zhejiang, the eleventh-generation patriarch of the Longmen Lineage in the Qing and the effective founder of the “Y…
Min Zhiting, a native of Nanzhao, Henan, was a Daoist of the Quanzhen Huashan lineage. In 1941 he entered the priesthood at Mount Hua, studying under Liu Lixian, and late…
Mu Changchao was a Quanzhen Daoist priest of the Yuan dynasty; his dates and native place are unknown, and he was active roughly from the late thirteenth to the early fou…
Mugitani Kunio is a Japanese scholar of Daoism, professor emeritus at the Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, and president of the Japanese Society of…
Nan Huaijin, a native of Yueqing, Zhejiang, was a well-known modern lecturer on Chinese classical learning (guoxue). In his early years he studied martial arts and Chan m…
Nie Shidao, courtesy name Zongwei, was a Daoist priest of the late Tang and Five Dynasties, a native of Shezhou. He entered the Daoist life as a young man and received sc…
Ning Quanzhen, personal name Benli, courtesy name Daoli, a native of Kaifeng, Henan, was the actual founder of the Southern Song Lingbao Donghua School. As a youth he fle…
Ōfuchi Ninji was a Japanese scholar of Daoist textual studies, professor emeritus at Okayama University. He is known for his research on the Dunhuang Daoist manuscripts a…
Pan Shizheng, style name Zizhen, was the eleventh patriarch of the Tang-dynasty Maoshan Shangqing School. Orphaned of his father in youth, he entered the Daoist order in …
Paul R. Katz, an American historian, is a distinguished research fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, working on Chinese popular religion, …
Peng Dingqiu, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, was the top graduate (zhuangyuan) of the metropolitan examination in the fifteenth year of the Kangxi era (1676), rising to the…
Peng Si, styled Jiyi, a native of Fuzhou, Fujian, was an inner-chamber disciple of Bai Yuchan. According to the Lishi Zhenxian Tidao Tongjian Xubian, he was widely learne…
Peng Xiao, courtesy name Xiuchuan, styled Zhenyizi, was a Daoist priest of the Later Shu during the Five Dynasties. A native of Yongkang, he served the Shu state as a Cou…
Qi Hui, also named Pingding, was the leader of the Louguan School at the Sui–Tang juncture. At the end of the Daye era of Sui, when Li Yuan raised an army against the Sui…
Qi Zhicheng, a native of Datong in Shanxi, was the tenth-generation head of the Quanzhen order. In his youth he met Yu Daoxian and thereafter left home to enter the Quanz…
The relationship between Qin Shi Huang (Ying Zheng) and Daoism centers on his embrace and promotion of the Fangxian Dao of Yan and Qi. According to the "Basic Annals of Q…
Qing Xitai, a native of Santai, Sichuan, was a professor at Sichuan University. In 1980 he founded the Institute for Religious Studies at Sichuan University (later the In…
Qiu Chuji, a native of Qixia, Shandong, renounced the household at nineteen and took Wang Chongyang as his teacher the following year, the youngest of the Seven Perfected…
Qiu Xuanqing was a native of Fuping in Shaanxi, a Quanzhen Daoist priest of the late Yuan and early Ming who studied under Zhang Sanfeng on Mount Wudang — one of the few …
Rao Dongtian was a Daoist priest of the early Northern Song, a native of Linchuan, Fuzhou, and the founder of the Correct Method of the Celestial Heart (Tianxin Zhengfa).…
Ren Farong, a native of Tianshui, Gansu, was a Daoist of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage. In 1955 he entered the priesthood at Louguantai in Zhouzhi, Shaanxi, and for many y…
Ren Jiyu, a native of Pingyuan in Shandong, was a historian of philosophy and scholar of religion, the founding director of the Institute of World Religions of the Chines…
任自垣，号蟾宇，出家茅山元符万宁宫，属上清茅山系道士。永乐四年（1406）应召入文渊阁参与纂修《永乐大典》；永乐十一年（1413）经第四十四代天师张宇清举荐，敕授武当山玄天玉虚宫提点，总理武当道教事务，正是永乐选调各省道士四百余人入山办道的亲历者与管理者；宣德三年（1428）升太常寺丞，仍提调大岳太和山。宣德六年（1431）纂成《敕建大岳…
Russell Kirkland, an American scholar of Daoism, is professor emeritus of religious studies at the University of Georgia and is known for his work on Tang-dynasty Daoism …
Sa Shoujian, sobriquet 'Guest of Fenyang,' was a renowned Daoist priest of the Song dynasty, later venerated as 'Perfected Man Sa' or 'Patriarch Sa,' and is counted toget…
Sakade Yoshinobu was a Japanese scholar of Daoism and Chinese intellectual history, professor emeritus at Kansai University, and president of the Japanese Society of Taoi…
Sakai Tadao was a Japanese historian, professor emeritus at the University of Tsukuba, and president of the Japanese Society of Taoist Studies. He is known for his resear…
Shao Yizheng, sobriquet Chengkangzi, was a native of Kunming, Yunnan, a disciple of Liu Yuanran, and the leading Daoist figure at the early Ming court. During the Xuande …
Shao Yuanjie, a native of Guixi, Jiangxi, was a Daoist priest of the Shangqing Palace at Mount Longhu, who studied under Fan Wentai, Li Bofang, and others, learning the Q…
Shi Chongxuan was a Daoist priest active under Emperor Zhongzong and Emperor Ruizong of Tang, and abbot of the Taiqing Temple in Chang'an. During the Shenlong and Jinglon…
Shi Jianwu, courtesy name Xisheng, styled himself Dongzhai, and after taking up Daoist practice styled himself Qizhenzi, was a Tang-dynasty poet and Daoist priest. He pas…
Shi Tai, styled Dezhi, with the sobriquet Xinglin (Apricot Grove) and also called Cuixuanzi, was the second patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal alchemy. Accordi…
Shiga Ichiko is a Japanese cultural anthropologist and professor at Ibaraki Christian University who studies Daoism, spirit-writing altars and the cult of Lü Dongbin in H…
Sima Chengzhen, style name Ziwei, Dharma name Daoyin, sobriquet Baiyunzi, was the twelfth patriarch of the Tang-dynasty Maoshan Shangqing School, a descendant of Sima Kui…
Song Defang, a native of Laizhou, Shandong, was a major figure in Quanzhen Daoism who studied under Liu Chuxuan and Qiu Chuji and accompanied Qiu Chuji on the journey wes…
Song Wenming was a Daoist priest and Daoist scholar of the Liang, active during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang; his dates of birth and death are unknown. He wrote the T…
Stephen Eskildsen, an American scholar of Daoism, is a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, studying Daoist practice, asceticism and internal alchemy.…
Stephen R. Bokenkamp, an American sinologist and professor at Arizona State University (previously a longtime member of the faculty at Indiana University), is a leading f…
孙碧云，号虚玄子，明初高道。十三岁入华山出家，承陈抟一系隐修传统；洪武二十七年（1394）明太祖召见。永乐十年（1412）明成祖以其为「张三丰弟子」，命往武当山南岩办道，并敕其「审度其地、相其广狭、定其规制」——即参与武当皇家宫观群营建前的规划选址；成祖敕建遇真宫，亦与命其候访张三丰直接相关。永乐十二年奉敕任南岩宫住持，永乐十五年（141…
Sun Bu'er, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, and the wife of Ma Yu, was the only woman among the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. She took Wang Chongyang as her teacher along wi…
Sun En, styled Lingxiu, was a native of Langya in the Eastern Jin who "for generations followed the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice"; his uncle Sun Tai had studied under Du…
Sun Ruzhong, a Ming-dynasty internal-alchemy master and author of True Transmission of the Golden Elixir (Jindan Zhenzhuan), has dates of birth and death unknown, and was…
Sun Simiao was a Tang-dynasty physician and Daoist priest from Huayuan in the Jingzhao region, revered by later generations as the “King of Medicine.” His birth year is v…
Sun Xuanqing, a native of Shouguang, Shandong, was a Ming-dynasty Quanzhen Daoist priest of Mount Lao, of the fourth (some sources say fifth) generation of the Longmen li…
Sun Youyue, styled Xuanda, was a Daoist priest of the Southern Dynasties and, according to one account, the eighth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing school (though so…
Tan Chuduan, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen. Originally a Confucian scholar, he suffered from a wind-paralysis affliction; hear…
Tan Qiao, courtesy name Jingsheng, was a Daoist priest and thinker of the Five Dynasties, a native of Quanzhou and son of Tan Zhu, who served as Vice Director of the Dire…
Tan Zixiao was a Daoist priest active in the Min kingdom and the Southern Tang during the Five Dynasties. He became a Daoist priest in his youth, and King Wang Chang of M…
Tang Kwok-wah (1910–2004) was a Hong Kong businessman, philanthropist and Daoist leader who served for many years as chairman of the Yuen Yuen Institute and chairman (pre…
Tang Yijie, son of the philosopher Tang Yongtong, was a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Peking University and founding dean of the Institute of Chinese Cultu…
Tao Hongjing, style name Tongming, self-styled the Hermit of Huayang, was a Daoist priest and scholar active between the Southern Qi and Liang dynasties, and the great sy…
Tao Zhongwen, a native of Huanggang, Hubei, originally served as a county clerk and practiced the use of talisman water; he was recommended to the capital by Shao Yuanjie…
Terry Kleeman, an American sinologist and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, is a specialist in the early Way of the Celestial Masters. His book A God's Own…
Tian Chengyang, a native of Shandong, is a Daoist priest of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen. He left home to become a Daoist on Mount Lao (Laoshan) in the 1980s, later st…
Vincent Goossaert, a French historian, is a professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) and formerly director of its Section of Religious Studies; he is a le…
Wang Bi, styled Fusi, a native of Gaoping, Shanyang, in the Wei kingdom of the Three Kingdoms period, was the representative figure of Zhengshi-era Xuanxue (Neo-Daoist Le…
Wang Changyue, a native of Changzhi in Shanxi, was the patriarch of the early Qing revival of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage. According to his own account, he traveled wide…
Wang Chongyang, founder of Quanzhen Daoism. Born into a wealthy family in Guanzhong, he sat for both the civil and military examinations in his early years but failed to …
Wang Chuyi, a native of Ninghai, Shandong, was one of the Seven Perfected of Quanzhen, taking Wang Chongyang as his teacher in 1168. He then lived for nine years in ascet…
王光德，道名王通圣，湖北丹江口人，当代武当道教复兴的核心人物。1981 年出家武当山，先后师承李诚玉、赵元量、王教化（龙门派）、萧耀宛（三丰派）、黎遇航（正一派）诸尊宿，被称为「集龙门、三丰、正一、玄武诸派法脉于一身」。1984 年武当山道教协会成立后任首任会长，兼任中国道教协会副会长、湖北省道教协会会长、全国政协委员，主持了改革开放后武…
Wang Jie, style name Daoyuan, sobriquet Hunranzi, was a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, and an internal-alchemy master of the late Yuan and early Ming whose dates of birth a…
Wang Ka was a research fellow at the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and director of its Daoist studies section, a leading scholar of co…
Wang Laozhi, a fangshi (master of methods) during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, was a native of Linquan in Puzhou. Originally a minor clerk in the transport commi…
Wang Liping, a native of Fushun, Liaoning, claims to be the eighteenth-generation transmitter of the Longmen lineage of Quanzhen. According to a biography written by his …
Wang Min, a Daoist priest of the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, styled "Master of Great Harmony," resided at Mount Qingluo in Luoyang. According to the Gazetteer of Mo…
Wang Ming, a native of Yueqing in Zhejiang, was a research fellow at the Institute of World Religions of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and one of the founders of…
Wang Mu, a native of Hebei, is a modern scholar of internal alchemy and a research fellow at the research office of the Chinese Taoist Association. He studied law in his …
Wang Ningzhi, styled Shuping, was Wang Xizhi's second son and the husband of Xie Daoyun; he served successively as Governor of Jiangzhou, General of the Left, and Interio…
Wang Qinruo, courtesy name Dingguo, was a Northern Song minister who twice served as chief councillor and was counted one of the "Five Ghosts." He was the chief architect…
Wang Qizhen, a Southern Song Lingbao Donghua School Daoist priest and disciple of Ning Quanzhen, dates of birth and death unknown, active roughly from the late twelfth to…
Wang Wenqing, styled Yudao (also given as Shudao), sobriquet Chonghezi, was the great master of Shenxiao Thunder Rites in the late Northern and early Southern Song, known…
Wang Xizhi, styled Yishao, was a celebrated calligrapher of the Eastern Jin who rose to the office of General of the Right Army and Interior Minister of Kuaiji, known to …
Wang Xuanlan, original name Hui, style name Xuanlan, was a Tang-dynasty Daoist priest of Mianzhu, an important thinker of Chongxuan learning. He entered the Daoist order …
Wang Yan, style name Ziyuan, was a renowned Daoist priest of the Louguan School from the Northern Zhou to the Sui. He entered the Daoist order in the third year of Datong…
Wang Yuanzhi, style name Deguang, was a Daoist priest active across the Chen, Sui, and Tang dynasties, the tenth patriarch of the Shangqing School. His father, Wang Tanxu…
Wang Zhijin, sobriquet Qiyunzi, was a Quanzhen Daoist priest active during the Jin–Yuan transition, a disciple of Hao Datong (the Perfected Guangning) and one of the repr…
Wang Zhitan, a native of Tangyin in Henan, was the ninth-generation head of the Quanzhen order. He left home to become a priest in his youth, studying first under a disci…
Wang Zixi, a fangshi during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, was a native of Hongzhou. Originally a Confucian scholar, he claimed to have "encountered Xu Xun and rec…
Wei Boyang was an alchemist of the Eastern Han, a native of Shangyu in Kuaiji, styled Yunyazi. Ge Hong's Biographies of Divine Immortals says he was "the son of a disting…
Wei Huacun, style name Xian'an, was the daughter of Wei Shu, Minister of Works under the Western Jin; the Shangqing lineage honours her as its first-generation Grand Prec…
Wei Jie was a Daoist priest of the Louguan School under the Northern Zhou, together with Yan Da, Wang Yan and others one of the 'Ten Elders of Tiangu at Louguan' (also ca…
Weng Baoguang, courtesy name Yuanming, sobriquet Wumingzi (Master Nameless), was a Southern Song Daoist priest whose dates of birth and death are unknown; he was active r…
Wenzi, traditionally a disciple of Laozi, was a Daoist figure of the Warring States period whose life is difficult to verify. The Bibliographic Treatise of the Han Histor…
Wu Quanjie, a native of Raozhou, Jiangxi, was the second Grand Master (Dazongshi) of Xuanjiao (the Mysterious Teaching) in the Yuan dynasty. As a youth he entered Mount L…
Wu Shouyang, courtesy name Duanyang, sobriquet Chongxuzi, was a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi, a celebrated late-Ming master of internal alchemy, eighth-generation Longmen …
Wu Yun, courtesy name Zhenjie, was a Tang-dynasty Daoist priest and man of letters. In his youth he was well versed in the classics and histories and skilled in compositi…
Wu Zetian was the empress of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and proclaimed herself emperor, founding the Zhou dynasty, from 690 to 705. Her relationship with Daoism was two-side…
Xia Wenyong, a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi, was the third Grand Master of Xuanjiao in the Yuan. In his early years he studied the Dao under Zhang Liusun and accompanied h…
Xiao Baozhen, a native of Weizhou in Henan, was the founder of Taiyi Daoism in the Jin dynasty. According to stele biographies, during the Tianjuan era (1138–1140) he cla…
Xiao Tianshi, a native of Shaoyang, Hunan, studied military affairs and philosophy in his early years, moved to Taiwan in 1949, and founded the Freedom Press (Ziyou Chuba…
Xiao Yingsou, sobriquet Guanfu, was a Daoist priest of the late Southern Song whose life details are unknown; he was active roughly during the reigns of Emperor Lizong an…
徐本善，号伟樵，河南杞县人，全真龙门派第十五代「本」字辈，民国间总理武当全山道务，人称「武当道总」。幼习儒，长于医术、精拳法；入武当紫霄宫出家，后赴南阳玄妙观受戒。光绪二十年（1894）回山后清整教务、订立教规，率道众垦荒募资修葺宫观，新修朝天宫至金顶道路，使衰落中的武当道教得以维持。1931 年贺龙率红三军进驻武当山，徐本善率徒众五十余…
Xu Dishan, whose pen name was Luo Huasheng, was a native of Tainan, Taiwan, a modern writer and scholar of religion who studied in the United States at Columbia Universit…
Xu Fu, a fangshi of the Qin dynasty, was a native of the region of Qi. The 'Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin' in the Records of the Grand Historian records that i…
Xu Hui, styled Daoxiang, with the childhood name Yufu, was Xu Mi's third son, who held the offices of Accounts Clerk and Registrar, and was known to his contemporaries as…
Xu Mi, also named Mu, styled Sixuan, was a member of the Danyang Jurong gentry in the Eastern Jin, who rose to the offices of Protector-General's Household Steward and At…
Xu Xun, style name Jingzhi, was a native of Nanchang in Yuzhang under the Western Jin, the founding patriarch venerated by Jingming Loyalty and Filial Piety Daoism, known…
Xue Daoguang, named Shi (also written Daoyuan), styled Taiyuan, with the sobriquet Zixian, was the third patriarch of the Southern Lineage of internal alchemy. He was ori…
Xue Jichang, a Tang-dynasty Shangqing Daoist priest and disciple of Sima Chengzhen. According to the Brief Record of Nanyue and the Comprehensive Anthology of Nanyue's Fi…
Yan Junping, originally named Zhuang Zun (changed to "Yan" in the Eastern Han to avoid the taboo name of Emperor Ming), courtesy name Junping, was a native of Chengdu, Sh…
Yang Xi, style name Yihe, was the actual founder of the Shangqing lineage in the Eastern Jin, the first to transmit the Shangqing scriptural corpus. Originally from Wu, h…
Yang Zhu, a thinker of the early Warring States period, was ranked alongside Mo Di in renown; Mencius said that 'the words of Yang Zhu and Mo Di fill the world.' His doct…
Yau Chi-on is a Hong Kong historian, director and professor at the Centre for Hong Kong Historical and Cultural Studies at Chu Hai College, formerly on the faculty of the…
Ye Fashan, courtesy name Daoyuan, was a celebrated Daoist priest of the Tang, a native of Kuocang in Kuozhou, born into a family that had practised Daoist arts for four g…
Ye Jingneng, a Daoist priest of the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, a native of Kuozhou, granduncle (some say uncle) of Ye Fashan. He won the favor of Zhongzong and E…
Yi Xinying, a native of Suining, Sichuan, was a Daoist of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage and a leading representative of modern Daoism at Mount Qingcheng. In 1917 he entere…
Yin Changsheng, a fangshi of the Eastern Han, appears in Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan. Tradition holds that he was a scion of the clan of Empress Yin, consort of Emperor He o…
Yin Wencao, courtesy name Jingxian, was a Tang-dynasty Louguan School Daoist priest who claimed descent from Yin Xi. He entered the Daoist priesthood in his youth and res…
Yin Zhiping, the sixth head of the Quanzhen teaching, renounced the household at fourteen and studied successively under the Perfected Ma Yu, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Hao …
Zhu Di, the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming, became the third Ming emperor after seizing the throne in the Jingnan campaign, and reigned under the era name Y…
Yoshioka Yoshitoyo, a Japanese scholar of Daoism, was a professor at Taishō University. In the 1940s he resided at the White Cloud Temple, Beijing, to conduct fieldwork t…
Yu Daoxian, a native of Ninghai in Shandong, was a renowned second-generation Quanzhen priest and a disciple of Wang Chuyi. In the late Jin he preached in the area of Sha…
Yu Ji (also written Gan Ji), a master of esoteric arts of the late Eastern Han, was a native of Langye. The "Biography of Xiang Kai" in the Book of the Later Han records …
Yu Yan, style name Yuwu, was a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, and a scholar of the Book of Changes and internal alchemy at the Song–Yuan transition. After the fall of the Son…
Yuan Miaozong was a Daoist priest active at the court of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song, known for compiling the ten-fascicle Secret Essentials of the Assembled Per…
Yue Chongdai, a native of Shandong, was a Daoist of the Quanzhen Longmen lineage and the first president of the Chinese Taoist Association. He entered the priesthood as a…
Zang Jin was a Daoist priest of the Chen dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, and the teacher of Wang Yuanzhi, the tenth-generation patriarch of the Shangqing lineage (one …
Zhan Shichuang, a native of Xiamen, Fujian, is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, and formerly a pr…
Zhang Bao, younger brother of Zhang Jiao, was one of the leaders of the Way of Great Peace, styling himself "General of Earth" during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. In the …
Zhang Boduan, styled Pingshu and later renamed Yongcheng, with the sobriquet Ziyang, was a renowned master of internal alchemy in the Northern Song, honored by the Southe…
Zhang Ling, courtesy name Fuhan, known to later generations as Zhang Daoling, was a native of Feng in the state of Pei in the Eastern Han, and the founder of the Way of t…
Zhang Daozhen, a Taiwan native, claims to be a grandson of Zhang Enpu and has acted in the capacity of the 64th-generation Celestial Master; after Zhang Yuanxian's death …
Zhang Enpu, the sixty-third-generation Celestial Master of Longhushan, succeeded to the office in 1924. Although Zhengyi Daoism had already lost its official status durin…
Zhang Guangbao is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, and formerly a research fellow at the Institute of History, Ch…
Zhang Guo, a Daoist priest of the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the prototype for "Zhang Guolao," one of the later Eight Immortals. The Biographies of Masters of Tech…
Zhang Guoxiang, the fiftieth-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, headed the order during the Longqing and Wanli eras. In the thirty-fifth year of Wanli (1607), b…
Zhang Heng, courtesy name Lingzhen, was the son of Zhang Ling and the second-generation leader of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice, honored by Daoism as the "Successor M…
Zhang Jiao was a native of Julu at the end of the Eastern Han, founder of the Way of Great Peace, and leader of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. According to the "Biography o…
Zhang Jixian, styled Jiawen (also styled Daozheng), sobriquet Xiaoranzi, was the thirtieth Celestial Master of Longhushan and one of the most famous Celestial Masters in …
Zhang Jiyu, a native of Guixi in Jiangxi, is a sixty-fifth-generation descendant of the Zhang Celestial Master house of Longhushan (as reckoned on the mainland). In the 1…
Zhang Jizong, the fifty-fourth-generation Celestial Master of Longhushan, succeeded to the office in the seventeenth year of the Kangxi reign (1678), and was among the ea…
Zhang Junfang, style name Yunfang (also given as Yinfang), was the compiler of the Northern Song Daoist Canon. He passed the jinshi examination in the second year of the …
Zhang Liang, courtesy name Zifang, was a founding strategist of the early Han and was enfeoffed as Marquis of Liu. Originally an aristocrat of the state of Han, after Qin…
Zhang Liang, younger brother of Zhang Jiao, was one of the leaders of the Way of Great Peace, styling himself "General of Man" during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. After Z…
Zhang Liusun, a native of Guixi in Jiangxi, was the founder of Xuanjiao (the Mysterious Teaching) in the Yuan dynasty. In his youth he entered Mount Longhu to become a pr…
Zhang Lu, courtesy name Gongqi, was the grandson of Zhang Daoling and son of Zhang Heng, and the third-generation leader of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice; Daoism call…
Zhang Qingye, a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, was a tenth-generation Daoist priest of the Longmen Lineage in the Qing, and the pioneer of Longmen Daoism in Sichuan. In his e…
Zhang Sanfeng was a celebrated Daoist priest of the late Yuan and early Ming, whose deeds are difficult to distinguish from legend. According to the "Biographies of Techn…
Zhang Shangying, styled Tianjue, with the sobriquet Wujin Jushi (Layman of the Boundless), was a Northern Song court official and scholar who was appointed chancellor in …
Zhang Shouqing, personal name Dongyuan, courtesy name Shouqing, was a native of Yidu in Xiazhou, Hubei, and the central figure of Wudang Daoism under the Yuan. He served …
Zhang Sicheng, the thirty-ninth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, was the eldest son of Zhang Yucai. He succeeded to the office in 1317 and was granted the additional tit…
Zhang Wanfu, a Daoist priest of the Taiqing Temple in Chang'an during the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, a "Master of the Three Caverns," dates of birth and dea…
Zhang Wumeng, style name Lingyin, sobriquet Hongmengzi, was a Daoist priest of the early Northern Song. In his youth he entered Mount Hua, where he studied together with …
Zhang Xilin, the fifty-fifth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office in the fifty-fourth year of the Kangxi era (1715). In the fifth year of the Yongzhe…
Zhang Xiu, a native of Ba Commandery in the late Eastern Han, was an important leader of the early Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. The Book of Later Han, "Annals of Empero…
Zhang Yanyu, the forty-eighth-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office in the seventeenth year of Hongzhi (1504). He lived through the Hongzhi…
Zhang Yuanxian, a native of Guixi in Jiangxi and a cousin's son of Zhang Enpu, went to Taiwan with the army in 1949. After Zhang Enpu's death in 1969, he was put forward …
Zhang Yucai, the thirty-eighth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, was the second son of Zhang Zongyan. He succeeded his elder brother Zhang Yudi as head of the order in 12…
Zhang Yuchu, the forty-third-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, was the most learned of the Ming Celestial Masters, succeeding to the office in the eleventh yea…
Zhang Yulong, the fifty-sixth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office during the Yongzheng era (because his father died young, the office was for a time…
Zhang Yuqing, the forty-fourth-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu and younger brother of Zhang Yuchu, succeeded to the office in the eighth year of Yongle (1410)…
Zhang Zehong, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Daoist and Religious Culture, Sichuan University, has long studied Daoist ritual protocol and the re…
Zhang Zhengchang, the forty-second-generation Celestial Master of Mount Longhu, succeeded to the office during the Zhizheng era of the Yuan. When Emperor Hongwu of Ming r…
Zhang Zhijing, a native of Anci in Hebei, was the eighth-generation head of the Quanzhen order. He left home to become a priest in his childhood, studying under Li Zhicha…
Zhang Zhishun, a native of Shenqiu in Henan, was a twenty-first-generation priest of the Quanzhen Longmen Lineage, with the Daoist name Mijingzi. He left home to become a…
Zhang Zongyan was the thirty-sixth Celestial Master of Mount Longhu. He succeeded to the office at the end of the Southern Song, and in the thirteenth year of the Zhiyuan…
Zhao Bichen, styled the "Old Man of a Thousand Peaks" (Qianfeng Laoren), was a native of Changping, Beijing, and a Republican-era Neidan master, founder of the Qianfeng (…
Zhao Daojian, originally named Jiugu, was a Quanzhen priest and a disciple of Qiu Chuji. In 1220 he accompanied Qiu Chuji on his journey to the west, and died of illness …
Zhao Guizhen was a Daoist priest active under Emperor Jingzong and Emperor Wuzong of Tang. He entered the palace with Daoist arts during Jingzong's Baoli era, and was rec…
Zhao Yizhen, courtesy name Yuanyang, was a native of Anfu, Jiangxi, and an eminent Daoist of the late Yuan and early Ming who inherited the transmission of three traditio…
Zhao Youqin, styled Yuanduzi, was a native of Poyang in Jiangxi (he claimed descent from the Song imperial house) and a celebrated scientist and Daoist priest of the Yuan…
Zheng Yin, style name Siyuan, was a Daoist priest of the Western Jin, a disciple of Ge Xuan and the teacher of Ge Hong. According to the 'Xialan' chapter of the Baopuzi: …
Zhong Fang, style name Mingyi, was a recluse and scholar of the early Northern Song. In his youth he failed the jinshi examination, and lived in reclusion with his mother…
Zhongli Quan, courtesy name Yunfang, styled Zhengyangzi, is the patriarch venerated by the Zhong–Lü Internal Alchemy Tradition of Daoism, and is one of the Eight Immortal…
Zhou Side, a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was a celebrated Daoist priest of the early Ming, skilled in the rites of Wang Lingguan. During the Yongle era, the Yongle Empe…
Zhou Ziliang, style name Yuanhe, was a Daoist priest of Maoshan under the Liang and a disciple of Tao Hongjing. He entered the mountain in his youth to attend upon Tao Ho…
Zhu Faman, whose Daoist name was Junxu, was a Tang-dynasty Daoist priest who resided at Yuqing Temple in Chang'an in the early Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong. He compile…
Zhu Quan, the seventeenth son of Emperor Hongwu of the Ming, was enfeoffed Prince of Ning and first garrisoned at Daning; after the Jingnan campaign the Yongle Emperor tr…
Zhu Yuanyu, styled Yunyang Daoren, was an internal alchemist of the Longmen (Dragon Gate) Lineage in the Kangxi era of the early Qing; his dates are unknown. He studied u…
Zhu Yueli was a research fellow at the Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and later a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of…
Zhuangzi, personal name Zhou, was a native of Meng in the state of Song in the mid-Warring States period, who once served as an official in charge of the lacquer garden; …
Zou Yan, a native of Qi during the Warring States period, was a celebrated scholar at the Jixia Academy and the representative figure of the Yin-Yang School. The 'Biograp…
Zuo Ci, courtesy name Yuanfang, was a native of Lujiang at the end of the Eastern Han and a renowned fangshi. The "Biographies of Practitioners of Magical Arts" in the Bo…